In such novels as "Blaze of Noon" and "The High and the Mighty," Ernest K. Gann struck some memorable chords in the orchestration of flight. Now, for the first time, he steps from behind the shield of fiction to stand autobiographically exposed in "Fate Is the Hunter."…. It is a tribute to Mr. Gann that in his review of his own stirring years in the skies, the reader is often quick to forget that this is not fiction. Mr. Gann's subtle technique of drawing the reader into his scenes establishes a rapport between pilots and nonfliers that is rare, indeed.

Mr. Gann has chosen in "Fate Is the Hunter" to emphasize the many phases of his own flying life and those of fellow pilots…. These reminiscences stand excitingly as individual chapter-stories, but the author has woven them superbly into a lifetime of flight. The reader thus is transported...